“Here’s our girl,” Jeter said. “Do you want to hold her?”
Cade reached for Chantal, but she buried her head on Jeter’s shoulder as she tightened her grip around his neck.
“She’s not ready for her daddy, yet,” Cade said. “But all that’s going to change. That is if it’s all right with you and Magnolia.”
“It’ll be good to have you come around,” Jeter said. “But now don’t you think we’d better get Spotted Wolf out of here?”
“I’m glad somebody thought of that while this reunion was going on,” Jacob said as he patted Cade on the back. “Where is he?”
“Ma’s got him hid in the other room,” Jeter said. “I’ll get him.”
When Jeter came back, he had Spotted Wolf, who was now dressed in white man’s clothing.
“Nobody saw me in the drugstore during the uproar so nobody will expect that I had anything to do with this whole thing,” Jeter said. “And I’ve got an idea.”
“Well, if it works as well as your last idea, it will be a good one.”
Half an hour later Jeter showed up in the alley behind the harness shop, driving a wagon. He sent Mary outside, to see if Bridge Street was clear and to make certain no one was lurking in the alley. When Mary was satisfied that all was clear, Spotted Wolf came out, climbed into the back of the wagon, and covered himself with buffalo robes.
“Pete Cahill will meet us south of Town,” Jeter said. “He’ll have a horse for Spotted Wolf so he can return to his village.”
Jordan had convinced some of the buffalo hunters that he had, indeed, seen an Indian coming into town, so they had put men out on the roads leading into Dodge City.
Jeter encountered Jordan himself, about half a mile south of town.
“Hold it!” Jordan said, holding up his hand. “Where do you think you’re a goin’, Willis?”
“I’m going out to Dugan’s store,” Jeter replied.
“What for?”
“I’m takin’ some buffalo robes down to Dean.” Jeter turned to look at the top two robes. And though he knew that these were robes that Jordan himself had brought into town, he pretended to be dumb about it.
“I just hope he’ll take ‘em off my hands. I’ll tell you the truth, these are some of the worst robes I’ve ever seen. Whoever cleaned them did an awful job.”
Jordan stepped up to the wagon, and recognized his mark.
“What are you talking about? These are prime robes!”
“You think so? Well, since you’re a buffalo hunter, I expect you’d be a better judge of that than I am. You’ve made me feel better about ‘em. Oh, now why was it you stopped me?”
“No reason,” Jordan said, stepping out of the way. He waved his arm. “Go on, deliver your robes.”
Two miles later Jeter saw Pete Cahill waiting back off the side of the road holding two horses. He motioned for him to join them.
“All right, Spotted Wolf. You can come out, now.”
Spotted Wolf climbed out of the wagon.
“Do you feel up to making the long ride back to your village?” Jeter asked.
“Yes. But first I must make a travois.”
“A travois? What for?”
“I will take Waquini back to our people,” Spotted Wolf said.
Jeter and Cahill helped Spotted Wolf make a travois out of one of the buffalo skins, then watched as he rode away.
“Strange to think that he wants to take back the body of the same man who shot him,” Cahill said.
“Indians are like that,” Jeter replied. “They’re just real big on honor. Come on, let’s get back to town.”
“What are you going to do if you get back and Jordan’s still out there and he sees these same robes?” Cahill asked. “Won’t he get a little suspicious?”
“You’re right. Help be hide ‘em in one of those ravines,” Jeter said. “When all this hullabaloo blows over, I’ll ride out and get them. That way it’ll pay for the horse that Spotted Wolf got.”
Two hours later Jeter, with Cahill riding along side, passed by the road guard, which by now had been reduced to Jordan and one other man.
“You were right,” Jeter said to Jordan. “He took the robes with no question.”
“I told you them was good skins,” Jordan replied, waving him on through.
20
One of the three wagons belonging to the Harrison and McCall Freight Company was out of commission for the moment, and it was jacked up on supports with the rear axle and wheels removed. Cade and Jacob were examining it when Jeter came out onto the wagon lot.
“So, this is your business,” Jeter said, looking around
“This is our company,” Cade said proudly. “Would you like a tour?”
“Sure, why not?”
Cade took Jeter around, showing him every aspect of the business. There was a small building with the name of the company painted on a sign that was nearly as large as the space itself. Behind that building was a stock yard, with twelve mules and six horses, and there was yet another building, somewhat larger than the office building. This was the “machine shed” and here were the tools and spare parts needed to keep the wagons functioning.
“I’ve been curious about your operation,” Jeter said. “I’ve wanted to come down here and take a look around.”
“I’m glad you finally did.”
“But, that isn’t the only reason I’m here. Magnolia wants to know if you’d come over to the house for dinner tonight.”
“Are you kidding me? I’d be a fool to pass up any opportunity to eat her cooking. I’ll be there with bells on.”
“Magnolia, that was delicious!” Cade said as he pushed away the dinner plate that evening. What was that, anyway?”
Jeter laughed. “Are you saying you didn’t know it was a hen?”
Cade shook his head. “Just calling it chicken isn’t enough. I know she has one of those fancy names for it.”
“Oignon de poulet,” Magnolia said with a pleased smile.
“See? Now doesn’t that sound a whole lot better than calling it a chicken?” Cade asked.
Cade and Jeter moved to a settee in the corner of the room, while Magnolia and Mary washed the dishes. The two little girls, both of whom were walking and talking, were running round and round the table.
Cade watched them, feeling guilty that he had been the cause of them losing the fine house that Jeter had originally built. While this place behind the harness shop was clean, it was not a third the size of the house they had been forced to leave.
“Jeter, how much do you and Magnolia like working at the Dodge House?” Cade asked.
“It’s honest employment,” Jeter said, “and it keeps a roof over our head.”
“I know that, and I’m not knocking it. But I’ve known you a long time, and I know you’d rather have something better.”
“Wouldn’t we all.”
“I can offer that to you.”
“Humph,” Jeter said. He cocked his head. “Are you asking me to come work for you and Jacob?”
“No,” Cade replied. “That’s not what I’m asking. I’d like you to come be a full partner with Jacob and me.”
“That’s rich, Cade. I don’t have the money to buy into any partnership, and I don’t want you giving me something I didn’t earn.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“Sure it is. Look, you and I have been through a very difficult time, and I’m prepared to put that behind us. But I don’t want to give even the illusion that my friendship is being bought.”
“That’s not what I had in mind,” Cade replied. “Jacob and I believe that five thousand dollars would buy one third of the company. And let’s face it, you already have seventy – five hundred dollars invested in this organization.”
Jeter held up his hand. “You mean the Red House. Only half of that money would be considered mine, and if you take away all the ‘mistakes’ Hodge Deckert has been making over the last several months when money just mirac
ulously shows up on the books in my favor, it wouldn’t even be that much.”
Cade looked away. “You weren’t supposed to know.”
“Who else in this town would care what happened to me or to a certain little black-eyed girl?”
“All right, so you know. But back to my offer. Let’s say you only have twenty-five hundred dollars invested. You’d be able to pay the rest of it within no more than three or four months and you’d still have enough money left to support your family. Are you interested?”
“I’m interested,” Jeter said. “But I won’t stay with it for long.”
“Why not? We’re making good money, and Jacob wants to get bigger.”
“These trips that you take—they’re from two to six weeks long, aren’t they?”
“Often they are, yes,” Cade said.
“Well that’s the problem. I don’t want to be away from Magnolia and the girls for that long, and as soon as I can put back enough money to buy another saloon, I’m going to do it,” Jeter said. “Magnolia and I might open our own restaurant as well and serve all this fancy food she fixes.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” Cade said. He stuck out his hand. “Welcome to the company . . . partner, for however long that partnership shall be.”
“If you ain’ goin’ to do any of the work, you ain’ goin’ to get any of the money from the Devil’s Den,” Luke Slater said.
“I can’t stay here,” Weasel replied. “There’s too many soldiers come in here, you know that. ‘N that damn colonel is still lookin’ for me.”
“Yeah, well, we didn’t kill that black sonofabitch, you did,” Luke said.
“What do you expect me to do? Starve to death? Hell, I ain’t got no money ceptin’ my share of the saloon.”
“You ain’t got no share o’ the saloon neither,” Luke insisted.
“Mack?” Weasel said, appealing to the brother who made all of the decisions for them. “Mack, do somethin’,” he pleaded.
The three were sitting at a table in the back of the saloon. It was early enough in the morning that there were very few customers present, primarily because the girls, who were the principal attraction of the saloon, had not yet made their appearance, and would not until afternoon.
“He’s our brother, Luke, we can’t let him starve.”
“Well you can give him some of your share of the money if you want to, I sure as hell ain’t goin’ to,” Luke replied.
“Maybe it’s time we expanded our business interests,” Mack suggested.
“What do you mean?”
“When we were stealin’ horses, one of the problems we had was that folks was always curious where we got our money. Remember over in Caldwell—anything that happened, the Slater brothers always got the blame,” Mack said.
“And if we turned up with a thousand or two thousand dollars to spend, the law always got to nosin’ around,” Weasel said.
“Yeah, and because of that, we never could get ahead. But with the saloon . . .we’d have a place to put the money,” Mack said.
“What money?” Weasel asked.
“The money you’re going to get by going back into our old business,” Mack said with a smile.
“You mean stealin’ horses?”
“I see no need to limit your activities to just that.”
Weasel smiled as he rubbed his hands together. “I can’t wait. The three of us out together again. Why we can go all the way down to Texas and get away with it.”
“No,” Mack said. “That’s not how it’s gonna be. Luke and I will stay here and run the saloon. It’ll be you who does the stealin’.” Mack said.
Weasel shook his head. “No you don’t. It ain’t a gonna be me put my ass on the line to steal no horses. It’ll be all of us a doin’ this or none of us.”
“Fine,” Mack said. “You just told us you can’t work here, ‘cause of the soldiers. Well then, either you move on or you go join the other outlaws who are hidin’ out skinnin’ buffalo.”
“I ain’t gonna do that,” Weasel said.
“Then round up some of the boys that was with us before, and go get some horses.”
The newly formed company of Harrison, McCall and Willis had three wagons lined up, ready to head south taking lumber and supplies to the redoubt that was to be built on the Cimarron River. Cade, Jacob, and Jeter were all going on this trip, but they had hired Abe Pullen, Mike Foster and Pete Cahill to go along as helpers.
Magnolia, Mary and the girls had walked down to see the wagons roll out and they were all waving goodbye. Even though Jeter would be away no more than three weeks Magnolia felt a sense of foreboding, as if she had a premonition that something bad would happen. This was the first time the two had been separated since they had married, and Magnolia felt lost without her husband.
Magnolia wanted to get back to the house that both Cade and Jacob had helped them buy. She was glad to get away from the back of the harness shop, but the house they had bought didn’t compare with the original house Jeter had built for her. The four were walking down the south side of Front Street, Chantal and Bella stopping to pick up every stick or stone or bird feather that they saw, while Mary hobbled along on her cane.
“We should have had Jeter take us home on the freight wagon,” Magnolia said as they passed by a new tent.
“No, no,” Mary said. “The fresh air’s good for the little ones.”
Several people were on the street and many spoke to Magnolia, telling her how much they missed her cooking now that she wasn’t working at the Dodge House anymore. As they were passing the laundry, a young woman came out carrying a canvas bag.
“Oh, what cute little girls,” she said as she set her heavy load down. “Are they twins?”
Magnolia had seen the young woman before. She knew she stayed at the Red House, but because she often saw her in the morning, she didn’t think she was one of the prostitutes.
“No, they’re just sisters,” Magnolia said. “I’ve seen you before. Do you work at the Red . . . I mean the Devil’s Den?” Even after all this time, Magnolia had a hard time thinking of the Red House by any other name.
The girl’s face flushed as she looked down, not wanting to make eye contact with Magnolia.
“I clean the rooms and do the laundry.”
“And what’s your name?”
“I’m Cetti. Cetti Marcelli.”
“Well, Cetti Marcelli, I’m glad to meet you. If you’d ever want to get another job sometime, I know that the Dodge House needs someone to do the same thing you’re doing now except that . . .”
“Oh, Mrs. Willis, I couldn’t leave my sister. She works at the Devil’s Den and she needs me.”
“I’m sure she does,” Magnolia said, curious as to how this girl knew her name. “I’d like it very much if you’d call me Magnolia.”
“Magnolia.” The girl laughed. “Did anyone ever call you Maggie?”
“As a matter of fact, there were some people who called me Maggie, but that was a long time ago.”
“I asked because my real name is Concetta, but nobody knows that.”
“Well, now I do. Thank you for sharing it.”
“Miss Magnolia, you’re different from most of the other women who live here, at least those who don’t . . .”
“Cetti! You little whore!” a man’s voice shouted. “Get back over here!”
The rude man was Luke Slater; he was charging across the street with long strides.
“Oh!” Cetti said, and Magnolia saw the frightened look on her face. “I’ve got to go.” She picked up her laundry bag and started to leave.
“Wait.” Magnolia said very quietly. “Is that man mean to you? Does he ever beat you?”
“No!” Cetti replied, though the way she answered the question gave lie to the response.
Instantly, Magnolia was transported back in time to New Orleans and the Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar where she and Arabella had worked together, or before that Le Plaisir d’un Gentleman. Bot
h were brothels, and she had felt the sting of the whip on more than one occasion.
“You know, you don’t have to stay over there.”
“I could never leave my sister, I’m afraid they would . . .”
“You leave my whores alone,” Slater demanded. “You don’t own the saloon anymore.”
“It wasn’t her fault, Mr. Slater,” Cetti said. “I was just talking to the little girls.”
Slater grabbed Cetti and began pulling her across the street.
“Let her go,” Magnolia yelled, as she tried to keep him from taking her. “She’s just a child.”
Slater stopped as he slacked his pull on Cetti, instead grabbing Magnolia by the hair. “Do you want to take her place? I’ll bet you do. We all seen your man drive out of town.”
Magnolia slapped Luke Slater, doing so before she even gave it a second thought.
Slater glared at her, then the glare turned into an evil grin. “Well now, Missy, you’re a feisty one. But that’s what it’s like when a woman’s got a touch of the tar-brush.”
“Get out of my sight,” Magnolia ordered.
“Oh, I’m doin’ just that,” Slater replied. He reached out and grabbed Cetti’s arm. “And I’ll be takin’ this little whore with me.”
He jerked Cetti so hard that she called out in pain.
“Shut up,” Slater yelled, as he backhanded the girl. “Shut up, or I’ll give you somethin’ to cry about.”
As Magnolia watched Slater drag Cetti across the street, she formed her hands into fists, seething inside, as she was helpless to do anything about it.
21
Private Al Lemon had the reputation of being the worst soldier at Fort Dodge, though Sergeant Caviness, the stable NCO, said that he believed he could make the claim that Lemon was the worst soldier in the entire United States army. But just because he was not a good soldier didn’t mean he wasn’t a smart man. Lemon happened upon a situation that he knew he could exploit, if he would just play his cards right.
He shared his idea with Lum Fargo, a man he had known at Fort Leavenworth. Fargo had been dishonorably discharged from the army, and now worked for the Slaters at the Devil’s Den.
The Western Adventures of Cade McCall Box Set Page 54